France calls for immediate UN intervention in Syria
Agence France Presse
Saturday 28 July 2012
MONLEZUN, France: French President Francois Hollande on
Saturday urged the UN Security Council to rapidly intervene in the Syria
conflict to pre-empt an all-out civil war.“The role of the countries of the
Security Council is to intervene as quickly as possible,” he said, specifically
addressing Damascus allies Russia and China and warning that failure to do so
would mean “chaos and civil war.”
Hollande said Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, which
launched a massive assault on rebels in the country’s commercial capital Aleppo,
“is condemned and will therefore use force right to the end.
“The only solution which will allow Syrians to reconcile
and reunite is the departure of Bashar Assad and the formation of a transitional
government,” he told reporters in the southwestern French region of
Monlezun.
“It is not too late but with every passing day it’s more
repression, upheavals and consequently massacres.”
Russia on Saturday warned a “tragedy” was looming but said
it was unrealistic to expect the government would stand by when rebels were
occupying major cities.
“We are persuading the government that they need to make
some first gestures,” said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, which had
been massing for two days, moved Saturday on southwestern districts of Aleppo,
where rebels concentrated their forces when they seized much of the city on July
20.
Artillery pounded Salaheddin and other neighborhoods from
8:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) as ground troops advanced, an AFP correspondent reported.
Trapped civilians crowded into basements, seeking refuge from the
bombardment.
The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said more than
20,000 people, the majority civilians, have died since the uprising against
Assad’s regime erupted in March last year.
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